Trichinosis

A disease that comes from eating raw or undercooked pork or wild game that is infected with the larvae of a worm called Trichinella spiralis. The initial symptoms of the disease are abdominal discomfort, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, fatigue and fever. Next usually come headaches, fevers, chills, cough, eye swelling, aching joint muscle pains, itchy skin, diarrhea, or constipation. With heavy infection, patients may experience difficulty coordinating movements and have heart and breathing problems. In severe cases, death can occur. The severity of symptoms depends on the number of infectious worms consumed in meat. To avoid trichinosis: Cook meat until the juices run clear or to an internal temperature of 170 degrees F (77 degrees C). Freeze pork less than 6 inches (15 cm) thick for 20 days at 5 degrees F (-15 degrees C) to kill any worms. Cook wild game meat thoroughly. (Freezing wild game meats, unlike freezing pork products, even for long periods of time, may not effectively kill all worms). Cook all meat fed to pigs or other wild animals and do not allow hogs to eat uncooked carcasses of other animals, including rats (which may be infected with trichinosis). Clean meat grinders thoroughly if you prepare your own ground meats. Remember that curing (salting), drying, smoking, or microwaving meat does not consistently kill infective worms. If you think you may have trichinosis, seek medical attention. Trichinosis is also known as trichinellosis.

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The disease resulting from ingestion of raw or inadequately cooked pork (or bear or walrus meat) that contains encysted larvae of the nematode parasite Trichinella spiralis. The initial symptoms of human disease are abdominal pain, cramping, and diarrhea, associated with the development of the parasites in the small intestine. Once the resultant larval parasites migrate and invade muscular tissue, a second set of symptoms is manifest, including facial and periorbital edema, myalgia, fever, pruritus, urticaria, conjunctivitis, and signs of myocarditis. SYN: trichinelliasis, trichinellosis, trichiniasis. [Trichinella (trichina) + G. -osis, condition]

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trich·i·no·sis .trik-ə-'nō-səs n, pl -no·ses -.sēz infestation with or disease caused by trichinae contracted by eating raw or insufficiently cooked infested food and esp. pork and marked initially by colicky pains, nausea, and diarrhea and later by muscular pain, dyspnea, fever, and edema called also trichinelliasis, trichiniasis

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n.

a disease of cold and temperate regions caused by the larvae of the nematode worm Trichinella. Humans contract trichinosis after eating imperfectly cooked meat infected with the parasite's larval cysts. Larvae, released by females in the intestine, penetrate the intestinal wall and cause diarrhoea and nausea. They migrate around the body and may cause fever, vertigo, delirium, and pains in the limbs. The larvae eventually settle within cysts in the muscles, and this may result in pain and stiffness. Trichinosis, rarely a serious disease, is treated with tiabendazole.

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trich·i·no·sis (trik″ĭ-noґsis) a disease due to infection with Trichinella spiralis, seen following the eating of undercooked contaminated meat; early symptoms are diarrhea, nausea, colic, and fever, followed later by stiffness, pain, muscle swelling, fever, eosinophilia, edema around the eyes, splinter hemorrhages, sweating, and insomnia. Called also trichinellosis.